The number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus in London and Middlesex hit 600 Thursday after health officials with the Middlesex-London Health Unit (MLHU) reported five new cases.
Of that total, 465 people have recovered — three more than Wednesday — and 57 have died, a tally that remained unchanged.
Health unit figures show four of the cases were reported in London, while one case was reported in Middlesex Centre — the second case to be reported in the municipality in as many days.
Four of the cases, including the Middlesex Centre case, involve staff at local long-term care homes, according to health unit data. Of the four cases, three are linked to the same facility.
Of the at least 61 cases that have been reported in London since June 1, seven have been linked to long-term care and retirement homes, according to health unit figures.
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London has seen 560 confirmed COVID-19 cases, followed by Strathroy-Caradoc with 20. Nine have been reported in Middlesex Centre, five in North Middlesex, four in Thames Centre and one each in Lucan Biddulph and Southwest Middlesex.
The number of active COVID-19 outbreaks in the region declined by one to two as of Wednesday afternoon after an outbreak at Chelsey Park Retirement Community was deemed resolved.
The outbreak was declared on May 30 and saw at least one resident test positive.
It was the second outbreak to be declared at Chelsey Park. An outbreak was active from May 23 to June 4 on the third floor of its long-term care facility.
Two outbreaks remain active in the region, including at Kensington Village, declared April 3, and at Peoplecare Oakcrossing, declared on Tuesday in the facility’s Norway Spruce area.
The outbreak at Peoplecare is the second to be seen there following an outbreak from May 3 to May 18 that saw two staff members test positive.
The number of hospitalized patients remains unclear but is under five, according to London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC).
LHSC has not released an updated tally since June 10 after announcing it would only put out a new figure if there were more than five COVID-19 patients in hospital.
No patients are being treated by St. Joseph’s Health Care London (SJHC) as of Thursday.
In an online update, SJHC noted that one additional staff member had also tested positive, bringing that total to 19.
It’s not clear how many LHSC have tested positive, as the organization has stopped releasing that number unless staff cases rise by five or more.
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Health-care workers make up about 23 per cent of cases in London and Middlesex, according to the health unit.
The increase is the lowest since late March, bringing the province to a total of 32,917 — an increase of 0.5 per cent over Wednesday, the lowest growth rate since early March.
The total includes 2,553 deaths and 28,004 resolved cases — with those now making up more than 85 per cent of the province’s total.
The numbers of patients with COVID-19 in hospital, in intensive care and on ventilators all dropped to their lowest levels since the province started publicly reporting those figures at the beginning of April.
More than half of the province’s new cases come from Toronto, with 70 cases, and Peel Region, with 27.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Thursday that a made-in-Canada mobile app to alert Canadians who may have been exposed to a person infected with the virus is ready for testing in Ontario and will be ready for downloading in early July.
Trudeau says the app is completely voluntary and will not share or store any personal information, including a user’s geographical location.
However, he says the app will be more effective the more people download and use it.
It will work by asking people to anonymously tell the app if they have tested positive for COVID-19, and then all the phones that have recently been close to that phone for an extended time will alert their holders to a possible exposure to the illness.
The latest case was reported in Woodstock in Oxford County. The county has a total of five active cases, including three in East Zorra-Tavistock, one in Tillsonburg and the case in Woodstock.
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In Elgin County, three active cases remain, including two in St. Thomas and one in Dutton/Dunwich.
None of the active cases have been hospitalized, health unit data shows.
Three outbreaks in have been declared during the pandemic, infecting a total of one resident and nine staff. All have since resolved.
The health unit says the nine staff cases may not necessarily factor into the region’s total case count as staff may live outside of the region.
As of Thursday, 7,491 tests had been conducted in Elgin and Oxford counties, with 619 people still awaiting test results.
The per cent of tests that come back positive stands at 1.2 per cent as of Thursday.
Huron and Perth
No new cases, deaths or recoveries were reported by officials with Huron Perth Public Health (HPPH) on Thursday.
The total number of cases confirmed in the region remains at 57, of which 49 people have recovered and five have died.
Health officials reported one new case and one recovery on Wednesday, and no new cases, deaths or recoveries on Monday. The health unit did not release an update Tuesday.
Three cases remain active in the region, including two in Perth County and one in Huron County.
Twenty-six cases and four deaths have been reported in Stratford, while 14 cases have been reported in Huron County and 13 in Perth County, with four cases and one death in St. Marys.
The four Stratford deaths were associated with Greenwood Court, a long-term care facility that had an outbreak that ended May 11. Six residents and 10 staff members tested positive.
In total, seven outbreaks have been declared. All have resolved.
The number of tests conducted in the region is not known as the figure has stopped being shown on the health unit’s website.
Sarnia and Lambton
One person has tested positive for the novel coronavirus and one person has recovered, officials with Lambton Public Health (LPH) reported late Wednesday.
The update brings the total number of confirmed cases to 279, of which 239 people have recovered and 25 have died.
Officials announced two new cases and three recoveries late Tuesday, and no new cases late Monday.
The total number of outbreaks in the county has risen by one to eight after an outbreak was declared at Bluewater Health hospital in Sarnia involving three staff members from its since-closed COVID-19 unit.
The hospital has seen no COVID-19 patients since Monday morning, when it discharged the final resident in its care from Vision Nursing Home. The hospital had taken in positive cases from the home to keep a severe outbreak at the facility from worsening.
A total of 18 staff members at the hospital have tested positive for the virus over the course of the pandemic, however, this is the first official outbreak to be declared at Bluewater Health by the health unit.
The reason, officials say, is due to a change made earlier this month by the Ministry of Health regarding when to identify an outbreak in a hospital.
Government guidelines now say that an outbreak at a public hospital is defined as two or more lab-confirmed cases — patients and/or staff — within a specified unit, floor or service, within a 14-day period “where both cases could have reasonably acquired their infection in the hospital.”
None of the staff have had to be hospitalized, and the other staff members who previously tested positive have since recovered.
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It’s not clear how many, if any, of the previous 15 staff cases would have triggered an outbreak declaration under the new changes.
The only other active outbreak in the county is the ongoing outbreak at Vision Nursing Home, which was declared on April 23. Twenty-six residents and 28 staff members have tested positive and 10 residents have died.
Eight outbreaks in all have been declared by the health unit. Six have been in Sarnia, while two have been in Petrolia — both at Lambton Meadowview Villa.
The percentage of tests that come back positive stands at 2.8 per cent, down from 2.9 late Tuesday.
At least 9,998 test results had been received by the health unit as of late Wednesday.
The Canadian government says it will donate up to 200,000 vaccine doses to fight the mpox outbreak in Congo and other African countries.
It says the donated doses of Imvamune will come from Canada’s existing supply and will not affect the country’s preparedness for mpox cases in this country.
Minister of Health Mark Holland says the donation “will help to protect those in the most affected regions of Africa and will help prevent further spread of the virus.”
Dr. Madhukar Pai, Canada research chair in epidemiology and global health, says although the donation is welcome, it is a very small portion of the estimated 10 million vaccine doses needed to control the outbreak.
Vaccine donations from wealthier countries have only recently started arriving in Africa, almost a month after the World Health Organization declared the mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
A few days after the declaration in August, Global Affairs Canada announced a contribution of $1 million for mpox surveillance, diagnostic tools, research and community awareness in Africa.
On Thursday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said mpox is still on the rise and that testing rates are “insufficient” across the continent.
Jason Kindrachuk, Canada research chair in emerging viruses at the University of Manitoba, said donating vaccines, in addition to supporting surveillance and diagnostic tests, is “massively important.”
But Kindrachuk, who has worked on the ground in Congo during the epidemic, also said that the international response to the mpox outbreak is “better late than never (but) better never late.”
“It would have been fantastic for us globally to not be in this position by having provided doses a much, much longer time prior than when we are,” he said, noting that the outbreak of clade I mpox in Congo started in early 2023.
Clade II mpox, endemic in regions of West Africa, came to the world’s attention even earlier — in 2022 — as that strain of virus spread to other countries, including Canada.
Two doses are recommended for mpox vaccination, so the donation may only benefit 100,000 people, Pai said.
Pai questioned whether Canada is contributing enough, as the federal government hasn’t said what percentage of its mpox vaccine stockpile it is donating.
“Small donations are simply not going to help end this crisis. We need to show greater solidarity and support,” he said in an email.
“That is the biggest lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic — our collective safety is tied with that of other nations.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.
Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.
The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.
“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.
Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.
Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.
A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
